Pueblo High School

Warriors Show Thanksgiving Spirit

By Ashley Cordova & Elizabeth Noriega

In spirit of Thanksgiving, our Warriors always show their generosity to the Pueblo community and to the entire city. This is especially true of marketing teacher’s Dr. Maria Bicknell’s students, who made over 400 sandwiches for the Casa Maria Catholic Worker Community; these sandwiches will be distributed to the hungry.

Bicknell said that her marketing classes learn about different social responsibilities, including feeding the homeless.

“It’s [Casa Maria has] been there for so long, and it’s a valuable service that promotes justice and dignity to people who are not only homeless but also are members of the working community,” Bicknell said.

She added that many of her students generous brought condiments, bread and delicatessen meats in order to make the hundreds of sandwiches.

Junior Alexis Castro, one of Bicknell’s marketing students, said, “My favorite part of this project is getting to help people because it’s so rewarding and so humbling.”

Another marketing student, Alexis Basurto, a senior, said, “I have learned to appreciate the little things in life and not to take anything for granted.”

Cajero Library Exposes Banned Books Display

by Alina Cuen

In Pueblo’s Cajero Library, Ms. Marsha Jean Burrola, our school’s librarian, has once again constructed a banned book display—like other libraries across the United States from Sept. 24-30—to bring attention to the issue of banning books from many classrooms and schools.

Many books that are considered to be classics among literary scholars have been banned in many different schools across the country—which are on display in our library as part of Burrola’s showcase—including Bridge to Therabithia, Beloved, and Bless Me Ultima—among others—because of religious beliefs, witchcraft, predestination, sexually-charged themes, atheism, racist statements and themes, and anti-family.

Burrola said, “Students and teachers know that at anytime something we take for granted could get taken away. Once a book is challenged, it could very well be removed from the reading list. The whole banned books movement definitely challenges our freedom to read what we choose.”

Some books that become banned may surprise many. Popular books such as Boy Meets Boy, Harry Potter and The Hunger Games are banned from being read in some classrooms. Even a literary classic, To Kill a Mockingbird, currently is the number one banned book in the country. Even some Hispanic textbooks, such as Occupied America: A History of Chicanos, 500 Years of Chicano History in Pictures, and Message to Aztlan, have been banned; these books, at one time, belonged to a Mexican-American Studies curriculum.

Many students have strong feelings about any books removed from school libraries and classrooms—especially in a nation that is supposed to endorse and protect the First Amendment.

“I think some books are banned because parents are excessively protective of their children,” said junior Laura Conde. “They [parents] don’t let their children explore different types of literature.”

Burrola said that Pueblo High School isn’t the only high school to bring attention to banned books. She said that Sabino High School and Catalina High School also have banned-book displays for all to see.

Even though Sept. 30 has passed, Burrola said that she wants to draw attention to this issue. She plans to repeat her “Banned Books Display” next fall.

“I want to continue to bring to our community’s attention to recognize and celebrate our freedom to read what we would like to read, without censorship—to continue to honor the First Amendment,” Burrola said.

Mr. Cortez—Back in ‘Familiar’ Territory

by Inez Gonzales

Spanish teacher Mr. Eleuterio Cortez is one out of the two dozen or more new teachers and staff members new to Pueblo this year.

Cortez, who teaches students in grades 9-12, is very motivated to teach them about the Spanish culture and language. If he looked familiar to some students on the first day, it is because he substituted at Pueblo last year.

“I have absolutely no complaints as a new, full-time teacher,” Cortez said. “I love it so far, and my students have been great!” he said.

“I enjoy my time in what I do, and I hope to be here for many years,” said Cortez.

As a Pueblo graduate from the Class of 2006, Cortez said that he is already familiar with the school, and he is glad that many of his former teachers are still here—such as science teacher Ms. Fatima Lopez; Spanish teacher Mr. Eleazar Ortiz; and English teachers Ms. Andrea Ayala and Ms. Kathryn Gunnels. He added that “it helps to have family here, too”; one of Pueblo’s newest English teachers, Ms. Imelda Cortez, is his cousin.

He added that even though Mr. Steve Lopez is now an administrator at Valencia Middle School, Cortez learned a great deal in his classroom.

“Pueblo was always very good to me,” Cortez said, “and it’s a privilege that I have this opportunity to return as a teacher and give something back in return.”

Warriors Get Hint Of Future At College Night

by Paula Fierros & Celestina Marinez

On Oct. 24, several thousand high school seniors (and even some juniors!) attended College Night, once again held at the Tucson Convention Center—a golden opportunity for our Southern Arizona near-high school graduates to be offered hundreds of collegiate choices and opportunities.

Nearly 50 of our Pueblo Warriors attended this two-hour evening event, giving students enough time to tour the booths for each college. There were nearly 200 colleges and universities represented at this event.

Class of 2018 Senior Carlos Chavez at Tucson College Night

Senior Ashely Andrade said she enjoyed looking at the U of A booth—which offered her education for her career interest in nursing.

Senior Robert Marinez also enjoyed the U of A booth since it offered engineering.

Senior Iram Arce said, “I spent a lot of time talking to representatives from the University of New Mexico not necessarily about that school’s academic classes but because of the great personality of the representative. He didn’t treat us condescendingly, and I picked up a couple of tips about college while I was talking to him.”

Seniors who have an idea of their future career have simplified their options based on what universities had to offer.

Senior Adela Garados said that she enjoyed speaking with multiple college and university booths.

“I really want to study foreign languages such as Italian and French,” Garados said. “It’s difficult to find universities and colleges that offer languages as a career.”

Plenty of high school juniors who attended College Night, as they are already becoming curious about their futures.

“Attending College Night was refreshing and definitely eye-opening,” junior Laura Conde said. “Even though I won’t be graduating for another year and a half, I am taking my time deciding where to attend college when I graduate in 2019. It’ll be here sooner than later.”

Drama Performances Help Clothing Bank

by Viviana Cruz

For the past three years, Pueblo’s drama department has been hosting annual variety shows during the first semester of the school year. This year, however, has been quite different. For the 2017-18 school year, the advanced theater class decided to host a charity show called “From Screen to Stage”, in order to lend a hand to Pueblo’s very own community clothing bank, currently run by our CBI students.

The show ran at the Little Theater on Monday, Oct. 2, and Tuesday, Oct. 3, and the overwhelming support was unexpected to these individuals as both nights were nearly sold out. The drama club raised $335, and all of the money will benefit the clothing bank. Live music during the performances was played by Mr. Johny Vargas’ guitar students.

Drama director and teacher Ms. Sarah Sutton said, “The purpose of this show was to bring in people who can donate, and we did that by performing pieces the audience was familiar with from movies and TV shows.”

The scenes were very eclectic classic movie scenes—from The Breakfast Club, Mean Girls, House Bunny, Friends, Aladdin, Donnie Darko—among others.

Actress Cheyenne Vega, a senior, said, “The outcome [of our performances] was great! Our actors love to perform and entertain people, but we also love to help out as much as we can—that’s why we performed our show.”

Exceptional education department chair Ms. Trevia Heath said, “We really appreciated what the drama students did for us! Their show collected numerous hygiene items along with more than $300—which will definitely help us purchase socks and underwear, which are always in high demand.”

Actor Milo Madrid, another senior, said, “I worked hard in every show. However, because I was representing not just the drama department but also supporting the clothing bank and our school’s CBI students, this opportunity gave me a little boost to work harder.”

The drama department has never put on a charity show like this before, and because of the effort made by students and teachers—as well as their success—the group said that they are certain this type of performance won’t be their last.

Pueblo Welcomes Mr. Alejandro Menchaca

by Kyra Ycedo

With the arrival of many new faculty and staff members, Pueblo welcomes new College and Career support interventionist, Mr. Alejandro Menchaca, to the Warrior family.

Born and raised in Los Angeles, Menchaca taught two years of Spanish before moving to Arizona approximately two years later, where he taught another five years of Spanish. However, despite leaving his high school job, he still wanted to continue work with secondary education students due to his passion for teaching.

“Working in [high] schools with students is great because they are very optimistic and very energetic,” said Menchaca.

“I really like Pueblo because of Dr. Romero’s leadership,” Menchaca said. He paused and added, “I also like working at Pueblo because it’s a South side community, and I’m able to relate to the Latin community.”

This year, Menchaca hopes to work closely with students, teachers, parents and the community to help with whatever he can. However, for now he has a lot of advice for our seniors.

“I recommend they [seniors] participate in events that I am helping to plan,” he said. “Our seniors also need to complete their FASFA, learn about college and the many career opportunities. At the same time, they also need to ask their teachers about their college experiences. I hope that the events that I help coordinate this school year will allow our seniors to better prepare for post-high school life.”